Nancy, do you offer different nutrition recommendations for elite athletes as compared to recreational exercisers? I am highly competitive, work out intensely, and often wonder if I am eating to be the best athlete that I can be.

Answer: Sports nutrition recommendations are based on the assumption we all want to get the most benefits from our workouts so we can perform to the best of our abilities. Because each elite athlete and casual exerciser is unique, a one-diet-fits-all approach doesn’t work. Rather, all exercisers want to be curious and experiment with a variety of fueling practices to learn what works best for their bodies. The following compares recommendations I might make for competitive athletes vs. recreational exercisers.

Note: Sports nutrition is a new science. In the near future, with the refinement of personalized nutrition based on genetics, sport dietitians will be able to offer individualized advice. Some athletes might perform better with more fat than carbs, or more beef than beans. Until then, here are today’s science-based recommendations.

Carbohydrate requirements

In this era that pushes fat and protein, carbohydrate deficiency is common. All exercisers can improve their performance (and health) by consuming adequate “high quality” carbs (grains, fruits, veggies) to fuel muscles and prevent needless fatigue. While elite athletes might want to strategically withhold carbs before specific training sessions to trigger performance-enhancing cellular adaptations, recreational exercisers want to focus on fueling well each day in order to have enjoyable workouts. A sports dietitian can help both elite and recreational athletes reach these carbohydrate goals:

Example: For a 140-lb fitness exerciser who trains moderately hard for an hour a day, carb goals are 350 g (1,400 calories) For the competitive athlete who trains harder and longer, a good goal is 630 g carb (2,500 calories) a day. Divide that into 3 meals (400 to 700 calories from carb per meal) and 2 snacks (100 to 300 calories from carbs per snack). Start reading food labels to see how well you do. You’ll discover a spinach-cheese omelet doesn’t hit the goal.

Protein requirements

A well-fueled competitive athlete with trained muscles requires a little less protein than a novice exerciser who is building new muscle. The range of protein needs (0.6 to 1.0 g protein per pound body weight; 1.2 to 2.0 g/kg) tends to be moot, given most hungry exercisers and athletes consume plenty of protein.

Most competitive athletes can easily meet their protein needs by targeting about 20 to 30 grams protein per meal (a can of tuna) and 10 to 20 g protein per snack (a Greek yogurt). The protein in natural foods is preferable to protein supplements. Natural foods offer a complex matrix of nutrients that interact with a synergistic effect. Plus, they are unlikely to be spiked with illegal drugs and compounds that can lead to a failed drug test.

Fluids

Competitive athletes lose lots of sweat when exercising for hours on end. But so can recreational exercisers who are out of shape and working hard. That’s why everyone who sweats heavily wants to learn his or her sweat rate. You can learn this by weighing yourself (without clothing) before and after an hour of exercise without drinking anything at X pace and in X degrees of heat or cold. For each pound lost, you are in deficit of 16-ounces of fluid. Drink enough during exercise to minimize this deficit. Throughout the day, drink enough to urinate every 2 to 4 hours. (Peeing every half-hour is excessive; no need to over-hydrate!)

Fueling during exercise

For competitive athletes, a sport drink or gel is a convenient and precise way to boost energy during extended exercise over 90 minutes. With a target intake of 60 to 90 g carb per hour of extended exercise, an elite athlete generally prefers drinking a beverage than eating solid food. A casual exerciser might want some tastier orange slices or a granola bar.

Electrolytes

Electrolytes (potassium, sodium, magnesium, and calcium) are readily available in standard pre- and post-exercise foods. Most recreational exercisers don’t sweat enough to lose a significant amount of electrolytes. Highly competitive athletes, however, train and sweat for 2 to 3 or more hours in the heat. They should add extra salt to their pre-exercise food (helps retain water and delays dehydration) and consume sodium-containing foods and fluids during extended exercise (endurance sport drinks). Afterward, chocolate milk beats Gatorade for an electrolyte-filled recovery drink. Most sweaty athletes intuitively seek salty chips, soup, or salted foods in for their recovery meal. If you are craving salt, consume salt!

Recovery

Recreational exercisers who train 2 to 3 times a week can easily recover by backing their workout into a balanced meal that contains carbs (to refuel) and protein (to build and repair) muscles, such as oatmeal + eggs; yogurt + granola; sandwich + milk; chicken + rice. Competitive athletes who train twice a day should more rapidly refuel by eating soon after working out. The key is to plan ahead to have the right recovery foods and fluids ready and waiting. While a commercial recovery drink can be handy, a fruit smoothie (made with Greek yogurt) or some chocolate milk does an excellent job. Real foods work well for everyone.

After lifting weights, no need for anyone to immediately slam down a protein shake. Muscles stay in building mode for the next 24 to 48 hours. Regular meals, with protein evenly spaced throughout the day, do the job.

The bottom line

Every exerciser and athlete can win with good nutrition. The key is to be responsible, and plan ahead to have the best foods and fluids available at the right times. Here’s to satisfying results from your hard work!

Nancy Clark, MS, RD counsels both casual and competitive athletes at her office in Newton, MA (617-795-1875). Her best selling Sports Nutrition Guidebook and good guide for soccer, marathoners and cyclists offer additional information. Visit NancyClarkRD.com. For her popular online workshop, see NutritionSportsExerciseCEUs.com.

Cannelini beans are an overlooked nutritional goldmine. They are a versatile and mild bean, with a very creamy texture. They thicken soups and sauces. Make a velvety dip base and accept flavor profiles from every culture. This twist on an international favorite can be used to stuff enchiladas and tacos, too.

Ingredients

• 1 small can organic cannellini beans, drained, and ice bathed*
• 1 small can organic black beans, drained, and ice bathed*
• 2-3 Tbls olive oil
• 1 1/4 tsps ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp cayenne
• 2 tsps chili powder blend, mild
• 1/4 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp lime zest
• 2 tsps lime juice
• 1/2 tsp lemon zest
• 2 tsps lemon juice
• Salt to taste
• 1/4 cup tahini

Tina’s black bean hummus tostada. Includes her black beans hummus with kale and orange salad on a coconut oil fried tortilla

Directions

• Toss all ingredients together in a large bowl.
• Place 1/2 of the ingredients to a food processor, blend until smooth
• Transfer to a serving bowl, repeat process.
• Chill and serve with your favorite gluten-free chip or cracker.

About Wheat

Wheat is a phytoestrogen. This is generally a good thing, unless the wheat has been genetically modified. We’re hard pressed to find wheat that is non-GMO. Wheat in it’s natual state is inflammatory. We definitely don’t want that, with regard to preventing disease. So we can see that there is good and not-so-good characteristics in all foods. For many reasons, it does us good to take a break from wheat, and wheat products, whether we’re practicing a gluten-free nutrition plan or not.

*About BPA in canned goods

When in treatment for a hormone based cancer like breast cancer, it is imperative that you buy BPA free cans. It will indicate this on the lable. BPA is a chemical that creates confusing, and incorrect messages in the endocrine system. It is thought that BPA is one of the main contributors to the rise in infertility. It’s really best to cook dried beans from scratch whenever possible.

Phyto facts

Beans are a great source of omega 3 fatty acid, the most talked about of all essential fatty acids. What we don’t speak of enough, is the ratio of Omega-3 to Omega-6. We are exposed to processed oils more than we might think, in our everyday foods. These oils are almost always out of balance. Even foods in their natural state can be too far out of balance with their ratio. Too much Omega-6 can actually cause tumors to grow. All beans are great! I don’t want to discourage any bean eating! My only message, as always, is variety. Traditional Hummus is a huge staple in our culture now, but garbonzo beans have a very bad Omega 3 to Omega 6 Garbonzos are full of Delicious Medicine, just don’t eat them everyday. Black beans have a very good ratio, and they’re really purple when you look closely. Kidney beans come in white, as we’re using here, and red. Each color offers a different profile of phytonutrients.

Fiber is the real healer here, though. Beans contain both soluble and insoluble fiber. Fiber collects circulating estrogen like a sponge in the bloodstream. We all think of one thing when we think of fiber: Yep! I’m going to say it, POOP! The estrogen is eliminated, ahh, much nicer word, through our bowel movements. If estrogen doesn’t hang around, it can’t become malignant. This provides great protection against breast cancer, generally speaking. Here’s the kicker, if you don’t clear your bowels at least once per day, the estrogen is reabsorbed into the body. Please be sure to drink enough water always, but especially when eating a high fiber meal.

Sesame seeds, like Flax, have shown tremendous results with regard to the prevention, and treatment of breast cancer. High Lignan content is the primary healer here. Lignans not only balance hormones, but they also protect receptors from damage. This is crucial in preventing tumors from forming. Nature provides clues as to what the food is good for.

Citrus is the shape of mammaries, and bioflavonoids keep the breast tissue youthful in appearance, and hormone health. Hello men, this isn’t just about “The Girls,” or weird hippies living on veggies, we care about your hormones, too. A long and healthy life means more great sex!

Affectionately referred to as The Walking Encyclopedia of Human Wellness, Fitness Coach, Strength Competitor and Powerlifting pioneer, Tina “The Medicine Chef” Martini is an internationally recognized Naturopathic Chef and star of the cooking show, Tina’s Ageless Kitchen. Tina’s cooking and lifestyle show has reached millions of food and fitness lovers all over the globe. Over the last 30 years, Tina has assisted celebrities, gold-medal athletes and over-scheduled executives naturally achieve radiant health using The Pyramid of Power: balancing Healthy Nutrition and the healing power of food, with Active Fitness and Body Alignment techniques. Working with those who have late-stage cancer, advanced diabetes, cardiovascular and other illnesses, Tina’s clients are astounded at the ease and speed with which they are able to restore their radiant health. Tina believes that maintaining balance in our diet, physical activity, and in our work and spiritual life is the key to our good health, happiness and overall well being. Visit her website, themedicinechef.com

Many athletes train in the early morning. Rowers commonly meet at 5:30 a.m. Hockey players might get rink-time at 5:00 a.m.. Athletes who need to be at work at 7:00 often train at 4:30 a.m. Many of these athletes report eating nothing before their training session. My stomach isn’t awake. … It’s too early to even think about food. … I get reflux if I eat. Others report they have better workouts when they eat something simple. The question arises: What’s the best way to fuel for early morning workouts?

Before answering that question, let’s first address the physiological goals for fueling before morning workouts.

1) To change the stress-hormone profile. Cortisol (a stress hormone) is high in the early morning. This puts your body in muscle-breakdown mode. Eating carbs + protein can switch to muscle-building mode.

2) To provide energy and prevent low blood glucose with the consequences of feeling light-headed, dizzy, and needlessly fatigued.

3) To be adequately hydrated. Dehydration slows you down.

If you are making the effort to get up early to train, you might as well get the most out of your workout! In a fueling study, athletes had dinner the night before and then a 60-minute exercise test the next morning. They performed 6% better in the 10-minute sprint to the finish when they had some fuel (carb) compared to having had nothing;  6% better when they had adequate water (compared to minimal water), and 12% better when they had both fuel + water (a sport drink). (1) Twelve percent better means running an 8-minute mile in about 7 minutes. Powerful, eh?

Your body can digest pre-exercise food and use it to energize your exercise as long as you are exercising at a pace that you can maintain for more than 30 minutes. (If you do stop-and-start exercise, you can still digest the food, but at a slower rate.) In another fueling study, athletes ate dinner and than nothing for the next 12 hours. Those who ate 180 calories (sugar) just five minutes before an hour-long exercise test performed 10% better in the last 15 minute sprint compared to when they ate nothing (2). Grab that granola bar or swig of juice!

If you are tempted to skip pre-exercise food so you can lose weight by burning more fat, think again. Yes, pre-exercise food will contribute to burning less fat at the moment, but that is irrelevant. The issue is not whether you have burned fat during exercise but if you have created a calorie deficit by the end of the day. Eating excess calories after a fat-burning workout gets you nowhere.

All of this means consuming some food and fluid on your way to the gym, spin class, or boot camp will enhance your workout—assuming you have trained your gut to tolerate the food and fluids. If you are worried about intestinal distress, start small (a few crackers) and work up to a handful of crackers, and then add, let’s say, a latte. For workouts longer than 60 minutes, the recommended intake is about 200 to 400 calories within the hour before you train. That recommendation obviously varies according to body size, exercise intensity and duration, and personal tolerance to food.

If you have been exercising on empty, you will likely discover you can exercise harder, feel better, and get more enjoyment from your workouts. Research subjects who ate 400 pre-exercise calories were able to exercise for 136 minutes until they were exhausted, as compared to only 109 minutes with no breakfast (3). Big difference! After learning this, one of my clients reported he was done with skipping pre-exercise fuel in the name of intermittent fasting. “Not eating is slowing me down and taking the fun out of my workout.”

Early morning options

Here are some options for fueling your early morning workouts so you are adequately hydrated and fueled.

Eat a quick and easy snack with about 200 to 400 calories (depending on your body size and workout intensity). Some popular options include: English muffin, toast, bagel or banana (with peanut butter); oatmeal, a smoothie, Fig Newtons, or granola bar. Coffee is OK; it’s a functional fluid that boosts performance and yes, helps with hydration.

Wake up 4 hours before important training sessions/events, eat a simple breakfast (bread + peanut butter), then go back to bed. This is a common practice among elite athletes. As one marathoner explained, “I don’t want to have food in my stomach when I’m racing. If a race starts at 8:00 a.m., I’ll get up at 4:00, eat a bagel with peanut butter and a banana, and then go back to bed. At 6:00, I’ll get up, have some coffee (to help me take a dump and wake me up), and then get to the race start. Because I never really sleep well the night before an event, getting up at 4:00 isn’t terribly disruptive.” In comparison, a rower reported she used to wake up two hours before practice to eat. She became too sleep-deprived and decided she needed sleep more than food. She started eating a bigger bedtime snack.

Eat your breakfast the night before via a bedtime snack, such as a bowl of cereal, or yogurt with granola. If you have dinner at 6:00, you’ll be ready for a bedtime snack by 9:00. Choose quality calories; this is your breakfast that you are eating the night before. Limit the cookies and ice cream!

Fuel during your workout.If your stomach isn’t awake when you first get up, it may be receptive to fuel when you are 30 minutes into your bike ride, run, or row. Be sure you have some fuel with you: sport drink, dried pineapple, gels, chomps, gummy bears—whatever is easy to carry and simple to digest. You want to target about 30 to 60 grams carb (120 to 240 calories) if the workout lasts 1 to 2.5 hours, and 60 to 90 g carb (240 to 360 cal) if the workout is longer than that..

What about “training low”?

If you are highly competitive and has mastered the sports nutrition basics (eat a diet with 90% quality foods; fuel evenly during the day; have no disordered eating behaviors), you might try training low (with depleted muscle glycogen and/or low blood glucose) once a week or so. To do this, eat primarily protein for dinner after a late-afternoon workout. The next morning, train without having eaten carbs. Exercising depleted like this is not fun, but it stimulates cellular changes that can be performance enhancing if you need to get to the next level (4). Novice and recreational athletes, however, first need to work on the basic ways to improve performance—by surrounding their workouts with food, and fueling wisely the rest of the day.

Nancy Clark, MS, RD counsels both casual and competitive athletes at her office in Newton, MA (617-795-1875). Her best selling Sports Nutrition Guidebook and food guides for marathoners, cyclists and soccer players offer additional inform-ation. They are available at NancyClarkRD.com. For her online workshop, visit NutritionSportsExerciseCEUs.com.

References

1. Below, P. et al. Fluid and carbohydrate ingestion independently improve performance during 1 hour of intense exercise.Med Sci Sports Exerc27:200-210, 1995.
2. Neufer P. et al. Improvements in exercise performance: effects of carbohydrate feedings and diet. J Appl Physiol62(3):983, 1987
3. Schabort, E. et al. The effect of a preexercise meal on time to fatigue during prolonged cycling exercise.Med Sci Sports Exerc31(3):464-471, 1999.
4. Hawley J and Burke L. Carbohydrate availability and training adaptation: effects on cell metabolism. Exerc Sport Sci Rev. 38(4):152-60, 2010.

As the New Year starts, I hear way too many athletes vowing to “knock off carbs” for their nutrition resolution. Most intend to eat less sugar (OK). Some plan to cut out bread, pasta, potato and starchy foods (not OK), and others plan to also limit fruits and veggies (bad idea). The reality is, carbs should be the foundation of your sports diet.

Carbs 101

By carbs, I mean primarily fruits, vegetables, beans and grains. But little is wrong with a sprinkling of added sugar (less than 10% of your total daily calories) or enjoying a meal with refined white flour (as long your other meals include whole grains). To be sure we are all on the same page, let’s define this much-maligned word “carb.”

• Carbohydrates include both sugars and starches. They are biochemically similar. For example, green peas (and other veggies) are sweet when young; their sugar converts into starch as they mature. Unripe bananas (and other fruits) are starchy when young and become sweeter as they ripen. Their starch converts into sugar.
• Both sugars and starches are equal sources of muscle fuel. Whether you eat a starchy potato or sugary candy, the digested end-product is the same: glucose.
• Glucose feeds your brain, gets stored as glycogen in muscles (for fuel during hard, extended exercise) and also in the liver (where it gets released, as needed, into the bloodstream to prevent your blood sugar from dropping).
• Some carbs are more nourishing than others. Added sugars (white sugar, maple syrup, honey, agave, gels, chomps, sport drinks, etc.) lack the vitamins and minerals that invest in good health. Fruits, veggies, beans, and dairy, however, are health promoting sources of carbs. Obviously, you want to eat more of the best and less of the rest.
• Physically fit athletes easily metabolize sugars and starches. Unfit people, however, often end up with high blood sugar and pre- or Type II diabetes.Note: Most messages to cut out carbs are targeted at unfit people, not athletes.

Reasons to keep carbs in your sports diet

Here are five reasons why you, a physically fit athlete, want to include carbohydrate in your sports diet.

1. Carbohydrates fuel muscles. Athletes who restrict carbs pay the price: “dead legs” and inability to exercise at their best. If you routinely train hard 4 to 6 days a week, carbs should be the foundation of each meal. Here are the International Olympic Committee’s research-based carb recommendations for an optimal sports diet:

For a 150-lb athlete who trains hard 1 hour a day and remains somewhat active the rest of the day, the target intake should be 375 to 450 grams carb/day. That’s at least 90 g (360 calories) carb per meal and 50 g (200 cals) carb at each of two snacks. This is more carbs than in the ever-popular (low-carb) breakfast protein shake with a few berries, a lunchtime spinach salad, and a dinner with a pile of broccoli but no rice. Here’s what 375 grams of carbohydrate looks like (without the protein and fat that balances the diet):

Breakfast: 1 cup dry oats (50g) + 1 banana (25g) + 1 T honey (15g)

Lunch: 2 slices whole wheat bread (46g) + 1 can Progresso lentil soup (60g)

Snack:  1/3 cup raisins (40g) + 1 Tbsp dark chocolate chips (10)

Dinner:  1.5 c cooked brown rice (65g) + 14-oz bag frozen broccoli (20g)

Snack: 8 ounces vanilla Greek yogurt (20) + 1 Nature Valley Granola Bar (30)

While I am sure many of you are rolling your eyes right now and thinking, “I could never eat that many carbs without getting fat,” this is an appropriate carb intake, believe it or not, and these 1,500 carb-calories can fit into your day’s 2,500+ calorie budget. I invite you to be curious and experiment. How much better can you train with an appropriate carb intake?

2. Carbohydrates are not fattening. Despite popular belief, carbohydrates are not inherently fattening. Excess calories at the end of the day are fattening. Excess calories of carbs (bread, bagels, pasta) are actually less fattening than are excess calories of fat (butter, salad oil, cheese). That’s because converting excess calories of carbohydrate into body fat requires more energy than does converting excess calories of dietary fat into body fat.
3. Avoiding carbs can lead to food binges. By routinely including carbs in your daily sports diet, you take the power away from them and will be less likely to binge. That is, if you “cut out carbs” but then succumb to eating the entire breadbasket and the mountain of pasta when at a restaurant, you are doing what I call last chance eating. You know, last chance to eat bread and pasta so I’d better stuff them in today because my no-carb diet restarts tomorrow. (Ugh.)
4. Quality carbs (fruits, vegetables, grains and beans) promote a healthy microbiome, which reduces the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Fiber-rich carbs feed the zillions of microbes that live in your gut. These microbes have an incredible influence on your mood, weight, immune system, and overall health. Every major medical association recommends we consume a strong intake of fruits, veggies and whole grains. Do athletes on a low carb diet miss out on these health benefits? TBD.
5. Carbohydrate adds pleasure to your sports diet. Is something wrong with eating some yummy foods, like pasta and bagels? How about chocolate milk for a fun recovery food? Given that 10% of daily calories can come from refined added sugars, most athletes have about 240-300 calories (60 to 75g) of added sugar a day in their calorie budget. You can easily ingest that sugar via sport drinks, gels, and sweetened protein shakes. You can also enjoy one or two cookies or a slice of birthday cake—guilt-free.

Carb abuse is the bigger problem than carbs in moderation. The easiest way to prevent carb abuse is to eat satiating breakfasts and lunches (with carbs + protein) that fill your tummy, prevent afternoon hunger, and curb cravings for sugary sweets later in the day. Preventing hunger minimizes the cravings that give carbs a bad name in the first place. Give it a try?

Nancy Clark, MS, RD counsels both casual and competitive athletes at her office in Newton, MA (617-795-1875). Her best selling Sports Nutrition Guidebook and food guides for marathoners, cyclists and soccer players offer additional information. They are available at www.NancyClarkRD.com. For her popular online workshop, see www.NutritionSportsExerciseCEUs.com.